The outbreak of Covid-19
has classified the world into two different times i.e. the
Pre- Covid World and
the Post- Covid World.
How the world after Covid would be like is yet not certain but it has definitely brought many changes in our day to day life. This pandemic has brought major disruption in the market. For marketers, the importance of Digital Marketing has grown multiple folds today. The concept of online marketing started penetrating the market for a decade and was slowly bringing changes into the economy. But now, the shift has taken pace and the marketing trends are changing rapidly. The online presence of any firm has become crucial as people are spending more time online. For example, the traffic in the internet has increased to 30-40% in the last few weeks in India, according to a report of DE-CIX. Not only India, but the whole world is changing in a similar way.
In these uncertain times, the only thing certain is that Digital Marketing is revolutionizing the whole concept of marketing with the change in the buying behavior of the customers and this phenomenon is valid worldwide. Today, communication and networking have become extremely important to increase the reach among the customers and also to grow in the market. As a firm, it is important to bring changes to fit into the new market trends. The business goals, objectives, and strategies should be revised thoroughly so that it could align with the current marketing pattern. Be it any industry, the consumers should always be kept in the mind while formulating any new plans. As the success mantra of any business lies in their happy customers. The more satisfied the customers are, the more successful is your business. Some of the key points are mentioned below:
Customers are the new business channels: Today, the strongest marketing channels are none other than your audience who has similar ideas, views, and approach. That is how a connection is creating between the firm and the audience. This creation of these channels is very important in the near future to sell anything from products to services as the digitalization gets penetrated even into the remote areas of India and more audiences come into various Social Media Platforms.
Personal Branding: This is important to identify the specific audience a firm wants to cater to. To be successful in business, it is very important to gain the trust of the people. So, coming out in the front and let the audience know who you are as a person. Therefore, communicating with the audience and exchanging ideas is required to generate trust. This increases the visibility of your brand and people start building more trust towards your brand.
Personalized Communication: To keep the consumers' interest always up, it is important as a marketer to engage with the customer on a personal level. Being empathetic towards the customers and understanding their pain points and also resolving them is very important. This could be done through Virtual Consultation through Skype, Zoom etc. E-Mail Marketing is such a tool which when used wisely, could prove as a very powerful tool to help communicate with the customers and build a personal connection.
Shift from Physical Stores to Digital Stores: The concept of running a tangible store is getting old fashioned. With the new concepts of Work from Home and Social Distancing and with fewer cash transactions becoming the new normal, more firms are now getting digitalized. Even buying groceries and medicines online is the new normal. So, it is becoming highly important for the firms to mark their digital presence to not run out of the competition. With this, the competitiveness in the market among the firms also increases as this is a new challenge for many of the firms who were not present online. Even for the digitalized firms, it has become crucial to keep themselves technologically updated and advanced from its rivals.
Strong SEO, Chat Box, Website Builder, and Social Media: To be consistent and to grow in this market with increased competition, it has become quite necessary for the firms to not only have a mere online presence but also to have strong SEO teams to keep the firms ahead of the competitors. The website and the Chat Box work on the A-I-D-A concept of Marketing. A well-presented website would always drive more audiences in your site thus increasing the visibility of the firm and the popularity of the firm among the consumers' increases. It also captures the attention of the viewers with the creativeness, attractiveness, and authenticity of the page. Automated Chat Box is required to maintain high interest and also to make sure the consumer query does not remain unanswered. The optimization of these tools would definitely create a desire among the customers which would eventually lead to them to take action by purchasing the product or the services. Social Media presence is important to attract new customers and also generate awareness of your products or services to a large set of people. The online reviews and testimonials would be given importance as physical verification of the products become lesser.
Stay updated: As the marketing is becoming dynamic in this era, the firms need to stay updated with the new trends in the market, the new advancements in the technological front, and also on the purchasing pattern of the consumers. Market analysis and capturing the current trend would keep a firm's consistency in the market and also give a competitive edge. Identifying the new market opportunity and leveraging them is important for being unique and to emerge as one of the leaders of the industry.
Creativity in Communication: Keep exploring new technologies, methods, ideas to be exclusive and unique which would help you to stand out and attract more customers in your store. With a shift towards online stores, the 360-degree view of the products with a single click has also come into the trend, hence technology manifestation is at priority. This is one such creatives that can be seen in the market today. Coming up with new creatives would help the people to understand you better thus engaging the audience in non-verbal communication. The audio-visuals, animations, webinars, etc. are some of the ways to engage in creative communication with the audience.
In this business world, Digital Marketing has crawled its way to the budget allocation of a firm. To be a successful player in the market, it is important to invest a certain amount in the Digital front of the firm. A firm could only increase its reach if it could reach the masses and could create a strong impact. Digitalization has also opened the door for entrepreneurial ventures who could start at a small scale, strategize and then plan for long term. So, the holistic online marketing of the firm with a strong Digital Eco-system is the requirement of this hour.
By: Sushmita Biswas
